Puerto Rico In Crisis, Trump Insults Mayor

On Sept. 20, Category 4 Hurricane Maria made direct landfall with Puerto Rico, covering the island in as much as 35 feet of rain, according to the National Weather Service of San Juan. Struck with massive power outages, the people of Puerto Rico are pleading for faster distribution of food, water, and medicine to victims. This United States territory has been impacted catastrophically, yet humanitarian aid is still slow to step in.

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency(FEMA) visited Puerto Rico to assess the horrific aftermath of the Category 4 hurricane earlier this week, the White House has been criticized for not doing enough to help struggling Puerto Ricans. In a thread of 18 tweets on Saturday, the President Donald Trump fired away at the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, just hours after her CNN interview Friday where she criticized the White House’s attempt to turn the Puerto Rican crisis into a “good news story.”

Trump viciously attacked her, stating that there is “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.” He then added that “they want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.” Following this, Mayor Cruz issued an emotional plea for help.

“I will do what I never thought I was going to do. I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency,” she said.